DUOMO DI MILANOTREASURE HUNT

Milan Cathedral is the symbol of Milan and is located on the square in the center of the city. It is one of the most famous and complex Gothic buildings in the world. In size it is the second highest church in the world (after the cathedral of Beauvais in France) and the third largest (after St. Peter's in the Vatican and the cathedral of Seville). Where the cathedral is located now, first stood the ancient cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore. The cathedral was built according to the wish of Archbishop Antonio from Saluzzo and the Lord of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti. In 1418 the main altar was consecrated by Pope Martino V and in 1572 St. Carlo Borromeo consecrated the church even if the building had not been completed yet. In the eighteenth century they built the largest spire on which the golden Madonnina was raised, while the facade was completed in 1813 on the occasion of the crowning of Napoleon, who here wanted to be crowned king of Italy. Throughout the nineteenth century spires and all the architectural decorations were completed. In 1943, after the damage suffered during the Second World War, the cathedral was largely restored and the wooden doors were replaced with others, made of bronze. The cathedral's maintenance is entrusted to the Esteemed Duomo Factory, whose interventions are continuous.

For Geocachers: there are a few caches around the Duomo :-)

English Version​1. The Cathedral in numbers: guess what the following numbers refer to: 11,700 m2 - 1774 – 108.50 m - 164 - 5 - 3,400 - 4 m - 1813 - 158 m - 135 – around 37 km• Madonnina Installation• Completion of the facade, by Napoleon's will• Surface covered• Height of the Madonnina from the ground• Distance from the horizon, from the top• Height of the Madonnina statue• External length• Number of spires• Number of statues .......................... (of which approximately 2,300 are external)• Number of windows• Doors in the facade

5. Where is the cathedral sundial (look on the floor for a brass line from north to south ...). Can you recognize the zodiac signs? What is the biggest one? Do you know why?

6. Find the first stone of the cathedral (to the left of Ariberto's sarcophagus ...). What’s written on it?

Use the plan to mark what you have seen and write the answers to questions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.​

7. Find the statue of St. Bartholomew (also called the "Scourged" statue) and describe itThis is surely one of the most impressive works of the whole cathedral. St. Bartholomew was a saint who healed the sick and the obsessed, and in his martyrdom he was slain alive and then beheaded. Originally the statue was outside the cathedral, in the square in front of it, but its sight was so horrible that the bishop had it moved away.

8. What do the glasses represent?

9. Whose saint is the grave kept in the crypt? What material is the urn made of?

10. What do the statues in the apse represent?

11. In the apse, can you also find the holy nail of the cross? (look up ...)It is reported that the Holy Nail has been in Milan for a long time and has been found by St. Abrogio. In a warm afternoon of the fourth century, Ambrogio, formerly bishop of Milan, was going around the city. Passing in front of a locksmith's shop, he was attracted by the din of the hammering. Entering into the humble workshop of the craftsman, he saw him busy trying to bend a small piece of iron. The hammer repeatedly hit the white-hot metal, causing a rain of sparks to illuminate the interior of the shop, but the shots did not deform the small object. Ambrogio kept watching the poor man's work for a while. The iron was positioned again and again in the brazier, warmed up until glowing and, returning to the anvil, beaten by the maniscal with all his strength; nothing was changing, the metal did not shape. The blacksmith, sweating and swearing, threw the hammer on the ground. Ambrogio approached the man and asked for permission to examine the object: it was a large twisted nail, a bit more than a span long. Ambrose was pale. It was one of the four nails used to crucify Jesus. For years the traces of this sacred object had been lost, and now, without anyone being able to explain how, it reappeared in the shop of a humble blacksmith.The nail had been lost by emperor Constantine, who had received it from his mother Elena. She had found all the four Crucifixion Nails in 326 in Jerusalem, the same year when she also found the remains of the Magi. One of the nails had been thrown into the sea by Elena herself to appease a storm that had caught her boat as she was crossing the Adriatic. The remaining three nails, who had got in Constantine's possession, had been placed in his helmet, in a bridle and in the bite of his horse, to avoid further misfortunes. Inexplicably, two relics disappeared, and in spite of exhausting research and incredible rewards, they had been never found, till the day when the nail adapted to the horse bite did not reappear in a Milan workshop.Ambrogio immediately took the Nail to St. Tecla, the summer basilica, where it remained until the church was demolished to make room for the construction of the cathedral.The first procession of the Holy Nail that can be remembered dates back to 1576 when, during the plague, St. Carlo carried the relic in procession from the cathedral to the church of St. Celso to implore the end of the epidemic.

12. Where is the NIVOLA? The Nivola is a big object suspended and protected by a white cloth - a basket-shaped structure on which angels and clouds are painted. This is in fact a rudimentary elevator (now electrically powered, once moved by a rope system) that every year (in September) allows the bishop of Milan to reach the vault of the apse where the reliquary is located. Inside, it houses one of the sacred nails of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.Every year, on 13 September, five canons and the archbishop of Milan rise up to 45 meters high, thanks to a complex system of electric winches which, in the vault of the cathedral apse, allows to pick up a case that contains one of the Nails of the Crucifixion and a fragment of the Cross. The strange medium, called Nivola, seems to have been designed by Leonardo (originally it was run by some twenty men on the roof of the cathedral) to allow the bishop to reach the Holy relic and carry it into a procession inside the cathedral.In its present form, the level, as well as the artistic cross that hosts the Holy Nail, dates back to the time of Cardinal Federico Borromeo: consisting of a large metal sheet basket, wrapped in a canvas lining and adorned with paintings representing angels and cherubs wrapped in vaporous clouds, was painted by Landriani in 1612, and, since then, has been repeatedly restored. Around three meters long and a little less wide, the bizarre «elevator» weighs about eight quintals. Yet, the astonished devotee has always the impression of seeing a small incense volute rising.

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